Some of the most talented authors I know have few or no published works and are crippled by insecurity about how the professional world will perceive their writing. They water down or carve away at their own stories until the unique souls of the pieces are gone. Thread.
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Writers with natural talent seek out teachers who never made it as authors themselves but who believe they understand the perfect formulas for pleasing an audience. People with calculations and story beats but no passion for the work and no palate to detect true quality.
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And therein lies the problem. Storytelling is an art of balancing, and it’s true that these skills can be taught. Even people with talent need to learn basics and refine skills, or can find new inspiration through learning. But the teaching methods don’t line up.
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People with no natural talent need to be reshaped to match a blueprint. They need skills and formulas. They need to be molded by their teachers and spend time as passive vessels first. People with talent can never be passive vessels. They cannot be reshaped without breaking.
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When a teacher with no natural talent tries to shape and mold a student with natural talent, the student ends up breaking because they were already shaped. Teaching a student with natural talent is a process of refining, softening, sharpening, and cultivating. The shape is there
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Our another way, teaching those without talent is like building a housing development. You take one blueprint and apply them to all. Teaching those with talent is like cultivating a unique plant in a garden, one that can be guided as it grows but ultimately must develop itself.
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Too many writers with natural talent break long before they publish their first work because their teachers did not see the shape which already existed. Too many untalented teachers break the plant off at the base trying to force it to be a new shape and make it grow their way.
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This phenomenon is by no means limited to writing. Think about your own talents and where teachers have tried to forcefully shape you. Undo the shaping and remember your own form. Then develop along your own path. Others can provide guidance but we must cultivate ourselves.
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The guy that taught me to outline cost me 30 years. I was a prolific storyteller before I was introduced to the ironclad necessity of outlining.
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This is exactly why I present my own method as just that: my own. I’ll never say it’s the only way. I need extensive outlines and choreography to hit 10k.
@BrandonBVarnell hits 14k with almost no preparation at all. We are two people with talent who developed our own paths. - Show replies
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